


humanity and justice before wit and bravery

by Megkips



Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Gen, Sharing a Body, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 16:57:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6814357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megkips/pseuds/Megkips
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the conclusion of the events in Fuyuki and the injuries sustained during them, Waver finally lets himself rest and checks in with the Heroic Spirit he shares a body with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	humanity and justice before wit and bravery

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based on the Fate/Accel Zero event in Fate/Grand Order and contains spoilers for the primary storyline. [A summary of the event is available here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/grandorder/comments/4h06iv/fate_accel_zero_order_summary/)

Caster, Lord El-Melloi II, the combined spirits of the great strategist Zhuge Liang and the perpetually grumpy Waver Velvet, is entirely aware of how exhausted he is. It’s why, upon returning to Chaldea, he doesn’t protest when the words “you” and “ICU” are said in the same sentence. He lets himself be moved there so that there can be fussing and tutting at over-extending himself. Vaguely, he thinks, he ought to go help the Einzbern homunculus get a grip with the new reality. But then someone says, “Get some rest,” and Caster decides that he can leave the responsibility to someone else. If any more words are said, Caster doesn’t catch them. 

Of course, rest doesn’t mean the same thing for Caster as it does for everyone else. Rather than drift off into dreams, it’s entering one of the two mental landscapes being housed in the same body - the one that belongs to Waver Velvet and the one that belongs to Zhuge Liang. Which one the other visits depends entirely on who is in control of the shared body.

Here and now, it means Waver Velvet opens his eyes to find himself in a vast garden, with soft grass beneath his feet and bright blooms around him. There’s a waterfall somewhere within the garden, and it feeds into a pond that hosts a manmade island at its center. A gloriously red pavilion sits on the island, approachable only by a stone pathway that rises out of the water. Waver can see Zhuge Liang seated in the pavilion looking not at a map or with a brush in hand, but instead one of the handheld game systems Waver keeps in _his_ half of their shared mental landscape.

With a sigh, Waver shoves his hands into his pockets and begins to walk across the rocks, careful with where his feet go. The rocks are uneven, prone to encouraging badly balanced men to land in the water, and Waver’s not in the mood. It has been too long and too tiring a day.

Ascending the steps of the pavilion once he’s reached the manmade island, Waver clears his throat in order to catch Liang’s attention.

“Ah, I was expecting you,” says the Heroic Spirit, his voice a pleasant modulated tone that contrasts against Waver’s low gruffness, looking up from the game. His form is that of a young man with striking black hair hanging low, a well-manicured beard and mustache, and the white robe of a Taoist monk. The classical image, but younger, with his fan always somewhere within arm’s reach. Moreover, there’s a soft pillow beside him, and Waver plants himself there in an instant. 

“Whereas I wasn’t exactly expecting you earlier,” Waver says in response. “Seriously, I wasn’t expecting you to come out of the woodwork and suggest that you temporarily hop over to my younger self’s body in order to finish taking apart the Grail.”

“Given how hard you were berating him, I felt it appropriate to--”

“Bullshit,” Waver coughs politely.

Zhuge Liang doesn’t quite smile, but the way he inclines his head shows that he clearly concedes the point. “You were barely conscious and we were so close to failing. Relying on your younger self made perfect sense. I knew that we were compatible, and that in spite of your younger self’s, er--”

“Bratty personality,” Waver supplies.

“Spiritedness,” Zhuge Liang opts for instead. “He could be relied on to finish all of this and end this adventure. You find error with my actions, I take it?”

Waver shakes his head. “No. I’m just taken aback, given that you were dormant up until that moment.”

“It was clearly personal. It didn’t feel appropriate for me to butt in unless we were in genuine peril. Although I didn’t appreciate you wrestling for control as I tried to move from you over to your younger self. You had pointed out his flaws enough, explicitly saying he was in love with his own inferiority complex was over the top and frankly, a waste of precious time that we didn’t have.”

A low laugh escapes Waver. “But it was necessary. He didn’t have Rider to point it out anymore, and you stepped in to finish making the point about where his abilities lie.”

Liang sniffs. “You could have done it in a more constructive way, rather than focusing on tearing him down.”

“He--no, _I_ wouldn’t have listened,” Waver says, shifting so that he’s lying back on the cold marble floor. “Besides, that wasn’t the only thing I did that I know you didn’t find expedient or useful.”

“That’s true,” Liang nods, turning his head to look at Waver. “Talking Kayneth into giving you control of his Lancer entirely by convincing the man to go back to England comes to mind. If he had stuck around we would have had a strong mage to stand beside us and provide extra support. I have an inkling of why you did, but--”

“That inkling’s correct,” Waver admits without any shame in his voice. “Reines would have my head if she found out that I could have saved Kayneth in some timeline and failed to. Same with the whole thing regarding the Matou house. I doubt my best friend would want anything to do with me if she learned I could have gotten her sister out of there and I didn’t bother.”

In lieu of a verbal response, Liang simply nods, and a soft breeze fills in the silence. Tree branches rustle just enough in the wind to create a pleasant noise, and there’s birdsong from somewhere deep within the garden. The _tap tap tap_ of the touchscreen makes for a relaxing rhythm. After what might be a few minutes, or maybe a few hours, Waver breaks the silence.

“Thank you for letting me put things to rights,” he says. “Even if it was an exercise in futility.” 

A warm hum comes from Zhuge Liang’s direction, coupled with, “You’re welcome. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was your fight against Iskander, given your fealty.”

“I couldn’t have said no,” Waver says wearily, trying to erase the fight from his mind. Iskander saw him as an equal, acknowledged his skills, and Waver had accepted it all, but still. He had been the cause of Iskander’s second death and as such had forced his younger self to still live through that loss.

A loss that would, eventually, bring him to being that very man Iskander acknowledged and fought, but time stuff with regards to servants was exhausting and not what Waver wanted to reflect on. Perhaps sensing that Waver’s train of thought has derailed, Zhuge Liang clears his throat.

“I’m sure that our collective Master will summon him and you two can speak of what’s happened. And you know, I would hardly call any of this futile, given that Miss Einzbern accepted the organization’s generous invitation to take on a role outside of being a vessel for this particularly dangerous cup.”

Waver nods, shifting his weight a little so he can pull the pillow out from under his rear and move it so his head is no longer resting directly on the floor. Liang watches all of it, his eyes keen whereas Waver knows there’s nothing but exhaustion in his.

“Would you like me to take control for a bit?” Liang finally asks, once Waver’s resettled himself.

“Could you?” Waver asks tiredly. “I know you usually prefer to take a backseat but--”

“It has been a long few days,” Zhuge Liang finishes, like they’re agreeing on something rather than Waver simply stating his exhaustion. “I don’t mind. Would you like for me to start now?”

Waver nods. “Please? I could use the time to myself.”

“Very well.”

Zhuge Liang rises to his feet at that, pausing just long enough to hand his game system over to Waver. Once Waver’s taken it, the man exits the pavilion, walks over the rocks, and then out of the garden entirely, leaving Waver alone. Within moments of Zhuge Liang’s departure, the garden itself is gone, replaced by the familiar walls of Waver’s apartment just off of Druid Street. The bad lighting, the giant television and multiple gaming systems, the kitchen whose only use is reheating leftovers, everything. His little home.

Waver breathes out and returns his attention to the game at hand, then lets out a laugh.

“Asshole,” he says breathlessly. “Who hands someone a completed game!?”

**Author's Note:**

> It's hard to really get at how Waver and Zhuge Liang share a body in terms of who's in control most of the time, and so I've become fond of the idea that they're essentially sharing Waver's mind like a jaegar where Waver is mostly in control. What I find more interesting is the kind of bond they must have to make this possible, and the conclusion of the Fate/zero event seemed like as good as any to do some exploring.
> 
> Title comes from Zhuge Liang's The Way of the General in the section on _Sincerity in Generals (translation by Thomas Cleary)_
> 
>  
> 
> _As always, thanks to[Penitence Road](http://archiveofourown.org/users/penitence_road) for the beta._


End file.
